Full Wave Rectifier

Power Diodes can be connected together to form a full wave rectifier that convert AC voltage into
pulsating DC voltage for use in power supplies

The full wave rectifier converts both halves of each waveform cycle into pulsating DC signal using
four rectification diodes. In the previous power diodes tutorial we discussed ways of reducing the ripple
or voltage variations on a direct DC voltage by connecting smoothing capacitors across the load
resistance.

While this method may be suitable for low power applications it is unsuitable to applications which
need a “steady and smooth” DC supply voltage. One method to improve on this is to use every half-
cycle of the input voltage instead of every other half-cycle. The circuit which allows us to do this is
called a Full Wave Rectifier.

Like the half wave circuit, a full wave rectifier circuit produces an output voltage or current which is
purely DC or has some specified DC component. Full wave rectifiers have some fundamental
advantages over their half wave rectifier counterparts. The average (DC) output voltage is higher than
for half wave, the output of the full wave rectifier has much less ripple than that of the half wave
rectifier producing a smoother output waveform.

In a Full Wave Rectifier circuit two diodes are now used, one for each half of the cycle. A multiple
winding transformer is used whose secondary winding is split equally into two halves with a common
centre tapped connection, (C).

This configuration results in each diode conducting in turn when its anode terminal is positive with
respect to the transformer centre point C producing an output during both half-cycles, twice that for the
half wave rectifier so it is 100% efficient as shown below.

Full Wave Rectifier Circuit

The full wave rectifier circuit consists of two power diodes connected to a single load resistance (RL)
with each diode taking it in turn to supply current to the load. When point A of the transformer is
positive with respect to point C, diode D1 conducts in the forward direction as indicated by the arrows.

When point B is positive (in the negative half of the cycle) with respect to point C, diode D2 conducts
in the forward direction and the current flowing through resistor R is in the same direction for both
half-cycles. As the output voltage across the resistor R is the phasor sum of the two waveforms
combined, this type of full wave rectifier circuit is also known as a “bi-phase” circuit.

We can see this affect quite clearly if we run the circuit in the Partsim Simulator Circuit with the
smoothing capacitor removed.

Partsim Simulation Waveform

As the spaces between each half-wave developed by each diode is now being filled in by the other
diode the average DC output voltage across the load resistor is now double that of the single half-wave
rectifier circuit and is about 0.637Vmax of the peak voltage, assuming no losses.

Where: VMAX is the maximum peak value in one half of the secondary winding and VRMS is the rms
value as: VRMS = 0.7071VMAX. The DC current is given as: IDC = VDC/R.

The peak voltage of the output waveform is the same as before for the half-wave rectifier provided
each half of the transformer windings have the same rms voltage value. To obtain a different DC
voltage output different transformer ratios can be used.

The main disadvantage of this type of full wave rectifier circuit is that a larger transformer for a given
power output is required with two separate but identical secondary windings making this type of full
wave rectifying circuit costly compared to the “Full Wave Bridge Rectifier” circuit equivalent.
The Full Wave Bridge Rectifier
Another type of circuit that produces the same output waveform as the full wave rectifier circuit above,
is that of the Full Wave Bridge Rectifier. This type of single phase rectifier uses four individual
rectifying diodes connected in a closed loop “bridge” configuration to produce the desired output.

The main advantage of this bridge circuit is that it does not require a special centre tapped transformer,
thereby reducing its size and cost. The single secondary winding is connected to one side of the diode
bridge network and the load to the other side as shown below.

The Diode Bridge Rectifier

The four diodes labelled D1 to D4 are arranged in “series pairs” with only two diodes conducting
current during each half cycle. During the positive half cycle of the supply, diodes D1 and D2 conduct
in series while diodes D3 and D4 are reverse biased and the current flows through the load as shown
below.

The Positive Half-cycle

During the negative half cycle of the supply, diodes D3 and D4 conduct in series, but diodes D1 and
D2 switch “OFF” as they are now reverse biased. The current flowing through the load is the same
direction as before.
The Negative Half-cycle

As the current flowing through the load is unidirectional, so the voltage developed across the load is
also unidirectional the same as for the previous two diode full-wave rectifier, therefore the average DC
voltage across the load is 0.637Vmax.

Typical Bridge Rectifier

However in reality, during each half cycle the current flows through two diodes instead of just one so
the amplitude of the output voltage is two voltage drops ( 2*0.7 = 1.4V ) less than the input VMAX
amplitude. The ripple frequency is now twice the supply frequency (e.g. 100Hz for a 50Hz supply or
120Hz for a 60Hz supply.)

Although we can use four individual power diodes to make a full wave bridge rectifier, pre-made
bridge rectifier components are available “off-the-shelf” in a range of different voltage and current
sizes that can be soldered directly into a PCB circuit board or be connected by spade connectors.

The image to the right shows a typical single phase bridge rectifier with one corner cut off. This cut-off
corner indicates that the terminal nearest to the corner is the positive or +ve output terminal or lead
with the opposite (diagonal) lead being the negative or -ve output lead. The other two connecting leads
are for the input alternating voltage from a transformer secondary winding.
Full wave Rectifier With Smoothing Capacitor
We saw in the previous section that the single phase half-wave rectifier produces an output wave every
half cycle and that it was not practical to use this type of circuit to produce a steady DC supply. The
full-wave bridge rectifier however, gives us a greater mean DC value (0.637 Vmax) with less
superimposed ripple while the output waveform is twice that of the frequency of the input supply
frequency.

We can improve the average DC output of the rectifier while at the same time reducing the AC
variation of the rectified output by using smoothing capacitors to filter the output waveform.
Smoothing or reservoir capacitors connected in parallel with the load across the output of the full wave
bridge rectifier circuit increases the average DC output level even higher as the capacitor acts like a
storage device as shown below.

Full Wave Rectifier with Smoothing Capacitor

The smoothing capacitor converts the full-wave rippled output of the rectifier into a more smooth DC
output voltage. If we now run the Partsim Simulator Circuit with different values of smoothing
capacitor installed, we can see the effect it has on the rectified output waveform as shown.
Using a 5uF Smoothing Capacitor

The blue plot on the waveform shows the result of using a 5.0uF smoothing capacitor across the
rectifiers output. Previously the load voltage followed the rectified output waveform down to zero
volts. Here the 5uF capacitor is charged to the peak voltage of the output DC pulse, but when it drops
from its peak voltage back down to zero volts, the capacitor can not discharge as quickly due to the RC
time constant of the circuit.

This results in the capacitor discharging down to about 3.6 volts, in this example, maintaining the
voltage across the load resistor until the capacitor re-charges once again on the next positive slope of
the DC pulse. In other words, the capacitor only has time to discharge briefly before the next DC pulse
recharges it back up to the peak value.

Thus, the DC voltage applied to the load resistor drops only by a small amount. But we can improve
this still by increasing the value of the smoothing capacitor as shown.

Using a 50uF Smoothing Capacitor

 Here we have increased the value of the smoothing capacitor ten-fold from 5uF to 50uF which has reduced the
ripple increasing the minimum discharge voltage from the previous 3.6 volts to 7.9 volts. However, using the
Partsim Simulator Circuit we have chosen a load of 1kΩ to obtain these values, but as the load impedance
decreases the load current increases causing the capacitor to discharge more rapidly between charging pulses.

The effect of a supplying a heavy load with a single smoothing or reservoir capacitor can be reduced by
the use of a larger capacitor which stores more energy and discharges less between charging pulses.
Generally for DC power supply circuits the smoothing capacitor is an Aluminium Electrolytic type that
has a capacitance value of 100uF or more with repeated DC voltage pulses from the rectifier charging
up the capacitor to peak voltage.

However, there are two important parameters to consider when choosing a suitable smoothing capacitor
and these are its Working Voltage, which must be higher than the no-load output value of the rectifier
and its Capacitance Value, which determines the amount of ripple that will appear superimposed on top
of the DC voltage.

Too low a capacitance value and the capacitor has little effect on the output waveform. But if the
smoothing capacitor is sufficiently large enough (parallel capacitors can be used) and the load current
is not too large, the output voltage will be almost as smooth as pure DC. As a general rule of thumb, we
are looking to have a ripple voltage of less than 100mV peak to peak.

The maximum ripple voltage present for a Full Wave Rectifier circuit is not only determined by the
value of the smoothing capacitor but by the frequency and load current, and is calculated as:

Bridge Rectifier Ripple Voltage

Where: I is the DC load current in amps, ƒ is the frequency of the ripple or twice the input frequency in
Hertz, and C is the capacitance in Farads.

The main advantages of a full-wave bridge rectifier is that it has a smaller AC ripple value for a given
load and a smaller reservoir or smoothing capacitor than an equivalent half-wave rectifier. Therefore,
the fundamental frequency of the ripple voltage is twice that of the AC supply frequency (100Hz)
where for the half-wave rectifier it is exactly equal to the supply frequency (50Hz).

The amount of ripple voltage that is superimposed on top of the DC supply voltage by the diodes can
be virtually eliminated by adding a much improved π-filter (pi-filter) to the output terminals of the
bridge rectifier. This type of low-pass filter consists of two smoothing capacitors, usually of the same
value and a choke or inductance across them to introduce a high impedance path to the alternating
ripple component

Another more practical and cheaper alternative is to use an off the shelf 3-terminal voltage regulator
IC, such as a LM78xx (where “xx” stands for the output voltage rating) for a positive output voltage or
its inverse equivalent the LM79xx for a negative output voltage which can reduce the ripple by more
than 70dB (Datasheet) while delivering a constant output current of over 1 amp.
Why not test your knowledge about full wave rectifier circuits using the Partsim Simulator Tool today.
Try different values of smoothing capacitor and load resistance in your circuit to see the effects on the
output waveform.